Authors - Meetings & Conferences

If you have forgotten your password, you can reset it online by visiting the My Account section of OSA.org (this is located at the top blue bar of every page). You will be prompted to enter your email address.

Alternatively, you may submit a Help Ticket or contact Customer Service by telephone at +1 202.416.1907 or 1.800.766.4672 (US/Canada only). Note: Customer Service Department hours are 07:30 a.m. to 18:00 p.m. (US East Coast Time) Monday through Friday.

Yes, you can delete your submission at any time before the deadline, by logging into the ScholarOne system using your login and password. Go to the “View Submissions” page and click on the delete button to the right of the submission. If you need to withdraw your submission after the submission deadline, please contact the Technical Papers staff by emailing cstech@osa.org or telephone +1.202.416.6191.

It depends. For most meetings, as long as you have submitted before the deadline, you may make changes to your paper up to 24 hours after the submission deadline. For postdeadline submissions, however, there is generally no time to allow changes after the submission deadline. Please make sure to check your work carefully before finalizing your submission, as updates to a submission will be accommodated only in the most extreme circumstances. If you must make changes to your paper and are not able to do so in ScholarOne, please contact the Technical Papers staff by emailing cstech@osa.org or by telephone +1.202.416.6191.

No. PDF files are a universally compatible format, ensuring that the Program Committee is able to open and read the file, and this format also provides a layer of security for an author who is submitting a paper. Please do not lock your file prior to submitting it, as OSA will need access to your file to stamp a tracking code on the file. If you have questions about how to create a PDF, please visit the Adobe Acrobat web site.

No. Your speaking date and time is largely determined by the content of your paper (i.e. papers on similar topics are grouped together in thematic sessions). Session dates and times are decided months in advance and there is little flexibility.

If you have forgotten your password, you can reset it online by visiting the My Account section of OSA.org (this is located at the top blue bar of every page). You will be prompted to login using your email address and your OSA password. (Note: If you do not know your password, you can reset it online.) Once logged in, click on the “Contact Information” tab followed by the “Edit” button in the name and address information box to edit your contact information.

Alternatively, you may submit a Help Ticket or contact Customer Service by telephone at +1 202.416.1907 or 1.800.766.4672 (US/Canada only). Note: Customer Service Department hours are 07:30 a.m. to 18:00 p.m. (US East Coast Time) Monday through Friday.

Please note that poster papers are not supplied with electricity or audiovisual equipment.

Posters should be readable by viewers 2 meters away. The message should be clear and understandable without oral explanation.

Try various styles of data presentation to achieve clarity and simplicity.

Enlarge your best initial sketch, keeping the dimensions in proportion to the final poster. The rough layout should be full size. Print the title and headlines. Indicate text by horizontal lines. Draw rough graphs and tables. This will give you a good idea of proportions and balance. If you are working with an artist, show the poster layout to your colleagues and ask for comments. This is still an experimental stage.

The figures and tables should cover slightly more than 50% of the poster area. If you have only a few illustrations, make them large. Do not omit the text, but keep it brief.

Resist the temptation to overload the poster. More material may mean less communication. Prepare a 10 cm high headline strip that runs the full width of the poster. Include the title, authors and affiliations on the strip in letters no less than 2.5 cm high. Post a large, typed copy of your abstract.

If you are an Invited speaker, you should have received an email prior to the submission deadline with instructions for submitting. You will submit your paper through the ScholarOne submission system, but a record has already been created for you. DO NOT create a new submission, and DO NOT submit your paper as a regular contributed paper.

If you did not receive your invitation email, you do not see the invited submission radio button in the Submissions tab under your account, or you are unsure how to complete the submission process, please contact the Technical Papers staff by emailing cstech@osa.org or calling +1.202.416.6191. Please reference your particular meeting and any other information related to your talk.

Prior to receiving access to your submission, each member of the Program Committee must agree to safeguard the integrity and confidentiality of the peer review, and certify that they will not share these files with anyone outside of the Program Committee for any reason. Other than the Program Committee, only OSA staff has access to the submissions. As a condition of employment, OSA staff must formally agree to keep proprietary information confidential.

You will receive instructions in the notification email, including speaking time and date, housing information and registration deadlines. Make sure to register before the pre-registration deadlines in order to receive a discounted price.

If the deadline is fast approaching, we suggest that you complete the file upload step last and complete all other required steps first (up to and including the abstract). Beginning a draft submission in ScholarOne is critical; papers for which no ScholarOne draft has been started cannot be accepted after the deadline. Contact the Technical Papers staff by emailing cstech@osa.org or by telephone +1.202.416.6191 if you have started your submission but are unable to complete it before the deadline.

The standard audio/visual equipment provided at each meeting is an LCD projector, a podium microphone, a lavaliere microphone, a projection pointer and a laptop computer with Windows OS 7, Microsoft Office 2010 Professional. Additional arrangements may be made upon advance request. For additional information, contact Customer Service at customerservice@osa.org

Postdeadline submissions are not an opportunity to submit a paper after the published deadline, but are intended to provide those with late-breaking work an opportunity to submit that work for consideration. Postdeadline submissions should describe new and significant material in rapidly advancing areas. A limited number of postdeadline submissions will be selected for presentation, and only those papers judged to be truly excellent and compelling in their timeliness will be accepted.

A submission is the record that is created in ScholarOne, the online submission system, denoted by a 7- to 8-digit number known as the Control ID. In order to complete a submission, you must complete all required steps in the submission process and hit the Submit button on the final step. Do not exit the system until you see confirmation that your submission was successfully completed. The submitting author should also receive a confirmation email. If this is not received, then contact cstech@osa.org.

An abstract is a brief (usually 35-word) synopsis of your presentation. The abstract is submitted in its own step in the submission site AND is included in your summary. If your paper is accepted, the abstract will be published, along with the title and author block, in the Conference Program. The abstract that you submit should exactly match the abstract in your summary.

A summary is a longer document (the number of pages will vary by meeting), submitted as a PDF, that includes your title, author block, abstract, and a summary of the presentation you intend to give (and may include figures, tables and/or references). This document will be reviewed by the Program Committee to determine whether the work is appropriate for presentation at the meeting. If your submission is accepted, your actual presentation may include more information than the summary. If your paper is accepted, the summary will be published in OSA Publishing's Digital Library one week before the start of the meeting and included on the Technical Digest CD-ROM to be distributed at the meeting. Please note that any presentations not given will be removed from OSA Publishing's Digital Library.

As a general rule, presenters should plan on setting up posters at least 1 hour prior to the poster session and taking down their papers within 30 minutes after the conclusion of the session. Authors should remain in the vicinity of the bulletin board for the duration of the session to answer questions.

Anyone can submit a paper to a conference or meeting: Academics or corporate researchers, OSA members or non-members, members of other societies, unaffiliated individuals, etc. Anyone who has conducted original and rigorous scientific research related to the meeting’s topic is welcome to submit. Students are especially encouraged to submit. Please remember, however, that all OSA meetings are peer-reviewed, and submissions lacking scientific credibility will not be accepted.

Yes. After the Program Committee has reviewed the submissions and decided which to accept for presentation at the meeting, you will be informed of the decision by email. Only the author designated the presenting author at the time of submission will receive notification. The email will come from cstech@osa.org. Please set your spam filter to receive emails from this address in order to assure your timely notification.

Yes, after you complete your submission by clicking on the “Submit” button on the last step of the process, you will receive an automatic confirmation email. If at any stage you return your submission to draft status to edit, then it is important that you remember to resubmit. Otherwise, you will not be considered for presentation. If you do not receive a confirmation email, please contact the Technical Papers staff at cstech@osa.org or +1.202.416.6191.

Papers are not released to the general public. The Technical Program Committee will have access to the papers for review purposes only. Approximately one week before the conference, accepted papers will be published online in OSA Publishing's Digital Library. Access is limited to technical registrants and OSA Publishing's Digital Library subscribers. Papers will also be published in the Technical Digest CD-ROM and distributed to technical registrants at the meeting. The short abstracts, however, are posted on the individual meeting web site once the program has been finalized. This allows conference attendees to plan their conference experience.